Postseason primer ... girls

Here is a look at some things to watch this week, as March Madness begins in the girls' high school ranks:

• When Murray and Marshall County tangle on Tuesday night in the Fourth District semifinals, one of the First Region's top four teams will be eliminated from the postseason.

Murray showed it belonged among the regional elite with nailbiter losses to Calloway County and Marshall on back-to-back nights a little over a week ago. The arrival of eighth-grader Janssen Starks on the scene (she transferred from Graves County to Murray in early January) has elevated the Lady Tigers from a borderline top-four team into a definite top-three club.

Starks' ability to play the point and score from the perimeter (she torched Marshall for 30 points in their last meeting) presents teams with another worry on the defensive end and takes a little more heat off of freshmen Haley Armstrong and Shelby Crouch and senior Stacey McClure.

Marshall, meanwhile, has struggled to find ways to score at times since Laken Tabor's surprise transfer to Crittenden County took away their best perimeter threat. And Marshall has looked vulnerable at times in the last two weeks with the close call against Murray and a loss at Ballard Memorial.

Jessica Holder has to shoulder the scoring burden for Marshall, and she can, as evidenced by her splendid 43-point showing against Paducah Tilghman. The only other Lady Marshals who have shown themselves to be viable scoring threats are center Hannah Ellis and guard Jordan Gilland, who has shown considerable improvement as a perimeter threat.

Marshall may also get limited time from forward Lena Bohannon, who sprained an ankle late in the Ballard game and is considered questionable for the Murray game.

• The Third District might be the most interesting tournament to watch. Top-seeded Ballard Memorial is the favorite, of course, but the Lady Bombers lost at home to Mayfield two weeks ago and St. Mary doesn't present the easiest first-round foe.

Mayfield has beaten Graves County twice this season, both times in close games, and could sweep the Lady Eagles for the first time in school history. This is the game that might be the hardest pick in the region this week.

• Ballard Memorial's win over Marshall County was the first for that program in more than three decades. Our story on last week's game mentioned that neither coach — Ballard's Kevin Estes and Marshall's Howard Beth — was sure whether it had happened before.

However, a pair of Ballard County-based readers pointed out that the Lady Bombers did knock off Marshall twice in the 1970s, in the infancy years of girls' basketball.